Strokes Of Confusion: Manu Bennett May Not Actually Be Playing Deathstroke In ‘Arrow’ Season 5 Finale

So after the most recent exciting news, spurred by Stephen Amell’s Tweets about Deathstroke and Manu Bennett returning to ‘Arrow’ for the Season 5 finale titled ‘Lian Yu,’ which would ostensibly see our hero teaming up with his old nemesis to take down his current nemesis Prometheus, it seems Manu Bennet has taken to Twitter to dispel these rumors, and bring us the actual facts, or to throw us all off the scent and make his return a surprise, I’m not really sure which. You see, according to Manu Bennett, he is NOT going to be in the ‘Arrow’ Season 5 finale, and Tweeted twice on the matter (you can check out his Tweets below), making it seemingly clear that he could not shoot the ‘Arrow’ finale in Vancouver because he was busy shooting the ‘Shannara Chronicles’ in Auckland.

The first Tweet claims people should not be making assumptions that just because Deathstroke will be returning, he will be back. And to further confuse things, ‘Arrow’ executive producer Marc Guggenheim threw out a Tweet stating that Manu Bennett’s return is the first “of a few exciting announcements about Arrow’s sixth season finale…” which was either a typo or a supremely confusing joke.

So what could all this mean? Could they be doing Deathstroke on Lian Yu and he could be played by a silent actor who never removes the mask so they can pretend it is Manu Bennett under there? It is possible since they did that for the 100th episode, but that would be very disappointing. Or they could be recasting Deathstroke, but that would be even worse as it removes the possibility of ever seeing Manu Bennett back in the role, which would be a big loss for the show.

Or the whole thing could be a cover up as TV Guide is reporting that their sources insist Bennett is returning to the role:

However, sources confirm to TVGuide.com that Bennett is in fact returning to Arrow for the finale and will begin shooting scenes in Vancouver later this week.

Somehow that is not the vibe I’m getting.

What do you think is going on? Did Stephen Amell see a script that said Deathstroke and assume Bennett would be back, thus sparking this whole mess with his Tweet? Could they be simply covering up Bennett’s surprise return? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments below!

Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.

Nicholas Graff

A Southern California native (which seems to be a rarity as everyone seems to migrate here from outside the state, and everyone else born here ends up leaving for less crowded spaces), but for Nick, he loves it here. Nick has been writing since he was a teenager, self-published his first book trilogy, 'The Legacy of the Roras' back in 2011, and in 2014 published the inaugural issue of his first comic book, 'The Shadow of Aquaterra.' While not working on my own projects, he is working as a technical film editor at a major television network in their digital media division and recently began writing news and recap articles for ScienceFiction.com, a position which he has found extremely rewarding.